A day in Birzebugga “the well of the olives”

Birżebbuġawhat a lovely and colourful seaside town!!!

I spend a day exploring the area without a map and without a plan, just a walk along St George Bay toward Pretty Bay, or in Maltese Baija s-Sabiha.

I just wanted to enjoy a walk over the promenade and be amazed!

Yes, Birzebuggia (this is the way we spell it) can really amaze you, for its contrasts, its colours, the old sites scattered along the village and the wonder of leaving your thoughts to the crystal blue water and simply enjoy the warm weather of late January.

Anyway, follow me… I will share with you my impressions of Birzebuggia both the shore side that the inner side.

This is where I started my journey: St George Bay and its promenade, we are in the South East Coast of Malta. To discover something more about St George Bay click here 😉

I was wondering about the meaning of the name Birzebbuggia and I discovered that it is composed by two words: ‘Bir’ that means a well and ‘Zebbuga’ that means olive.

So for a moment imagine Birzebuggia as the town of the olive wells!

Indeed the Romans used to cultivate the olive trees in Malta (click to this article to discover more) and to testify this were found remains of a Roman villa in the nearby Zejtun as well as in Birzebbugia in a place called Kaccatura and in Wied-Dalam on the hill in front of Ghar Dalam.

Birzebuggia and its valley was not only for Romans a fertile place to settle down, its history comes from the oldest past that we can imagine. Prehistoric remains of elephants, deer, hypos and many others were found in a cave at Ghar Dalam (Click here)

Walking along the promenade I stopped to take some pictures of the houses, they are all different in shape and architecture, I really liked them!

Also prehistoric humans settled here. It is famous the area of Borg in Nadur situated on a hillside overlooking St. George’s Bay (click here).

The Phoenicians too established on this area, of course the South was the first docking for their wooden ships coming from the Mediterranean!

Around Birzebbuga and up to the village of Benghaisa, many graves, which belonged to these famous mariners, were found and subsequently excavated.

I’m arrived now in Pretty Bay…

Let’s have a look at the village, in the pictures below you can find some of Flora the Explore’s impressions 😉

This is the Parish Church dedicated to St Peter. It was opened for worship on the 12 June 1938.

I’m truly in love with these houses, in the gallery below you can see how beautiful they are!!!

I have to tell you that the picture below is one of my favorite, also because it has the name of my grandpa, it was nice to think that I could nock the white door and he would have opened it…

The pictures above tell of a lovely village with colored benches, a spacious children playground area, a nice seaside square for the summer events, bars and restaurants (with fast food and Chinese cuisine always present).

My overall impression is that Birzebuggia is a mix of colours and styles, in a way there is no coherence, but this is what makes Malta so picturesque 😉

It is also a multicultural city, a lady told me that nowadays many people from everywhere live and work here.

To be modern and connected with this multicultural world we need a port… and here you are the Freeport!

A question I had in mind while I was walking along those beautiful bays: how is it possible such a clear water under those big giants of the Malta Freeport, the British Petroleum, the Power Station, the not so distant Air Force Base at Hal-Far and the Malta International Airport at its borders?

Well, the water will continue to flow above all my personal questions.

Suddenly a horse looked at me sticking out his tongue while he was going to the dock for a nice bath, as to invite me to focus again on the colours of the place 😉